Over the River and Through the Snow

So we all got up early on December 22nd and tried to pack up the cars. We were bound and determined to get to Fallon for Christmas if we had to go 10 miles and hour! Little did we know how prophetic that was going to be.

Extremo had broken the chains for Offspring #3's car the night before and Big Bry got up at first light and went to Les Scwab to get a new pair. Then he came home and started to pack his Tundra for the long trip.

We had to forge a path in the snow between the house and the cars. I made Offspring #3 stand right next to the drift of snow so I could document it for posterity.

Luckily, the men had packed down the snow and shoveled the driveway the day before. This made it a little easier for us to get to the cars. If you look behind the "Never, Never Van" you will see my car and if you look at the tires you will see just how deep the snow was. We were most worried about getting off our street. Offspring #3 drives a Cadillac Coupe de Ville and it rides low to the ground. With all the snow and ice we thought we might lose a muffler or worse.

All chained up we proceeded down the road. Most folks were on foot that day. The snow was deep and icy and slidey (is that a word?) We got about 1/2 mile down the road and the chains were really starting to make a terrible noise. Now I have been in chained cars many times and they are indeed noisy but not like this. A continuous thump said something was hitting inside the wheelwell and it didn't sound good. We stopped and took a look and it seemed okay. When we took off again the thumping got worse, sort of a whacking now. Big Bry pulled up next to us and took a look as we drove and sure enough he saw something amiss. We decided to take the chains off and go slow. Well slow turned into 5 hours to Salem, 45 miles away. It was slow going, lots of dumb drivers doing dumb things and icy roads. After that experience we were more than happy to take a short break outside of Salem before hitting the road again.

Once we passed Albany the roads cleared up and it was smooth sailing. We reached Medford at 5pm and took a nice leisurly dinner break. By the time we hit the road again it was 7:00 and we really didn't want to face Mt. Shasta in the dark. We decided to find a place to spend the night. We had already been on the road for 10 1/2 hours and it would be a few more before we stopped.

We finally stopped at the Motel 6 in Weed. Here is the baby relaxing. Whew! It was long day for him sitting in his carseat. Lucky he had his doggie feet pajamas on to entertain himself with.

Here he is relaxing even more. He loves naked time. His feet are his really most favorite playthings.

We got up the next morning to snow and ice on the roads. We thought it would be fine but as we turned east to Susanville we hit heavy snow. The roads were ice and a bit slippery so we decided to put the chains on the Cadillac.

After all these years, Extremo is getting pretty good at it.

It was cold and snowy but we all stayed cozy in the cars.

I wanted to sit in the back seat but after my first attempt to get in resulted in me laying face down in a pile of pillows, LC graciously offered to bunk out back there.

Here we are at the very last rest stop before Susanville. We dress for comfort on the long trip to Nevada. Actually I don't think I got out of my pajamas for 3 days before and 2 days during the trip.

So, why were we so all fired up to go to Nevada, the old homestead? Whatever do we do when we are there? Well, first of all we relax. You know since we are not home we don't have to worry about washing clothes, getting the roof cleaned, scraping the mildew off the walk, getting the dog cleaned and all those other life chores that have to be done. In Fallon we sit and have a margarita or two or six!

We go leisurely shopping the night after the rush of the day after Christmas.
We play games with the family.

And we watch the children grow. It was all worth it.